DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

§ 881

Citation
§ 881
Parent Document
United States v. Southland Management Corp., 326 F.3d 669 (2002)
Effective Date
2002-05-22
Original Source
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/27565/united-states-v-southland-managem... ↗

Other Sections in This Document (1123)

Full Text

973 chars 
20
        The dissent contends that this is a mischaracterization
of the Defendants’ position. According to the dissent, the
Defendants are arguing “not that the government is estopped from
holding them liable on [a false claims] theory, but that they are
not liable as a matter of law.” While this may be true with
respect to the Defendants’ invocation of government knowledge as
a defense, the Defendants’ contention that a claim cannot be
false if the government was aware of the circumstances rendering
it untrue is equivalent to an estoppel argument. As noted above,
as a matter of pure logic, the fact that the government is aware
that a claimant’s submission is false upon receipt of that
submission does not make the statement any less false.
Accordingly, what the Defendants must be contending is that once
the government accepts and remits payment on a claim knowing that
claim to be false, the government cannot argue that the claim was
false in a court of law.